Thursday, March 10, 2016

Ground the Drones! - Press Conference and Sentencing

DeWitt Town Court, DeWitt, NYFrom the Organizers:

Ed Kinane welcomes press and supporters, introduces Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones, and provides an update about the Jerry Berrigan Memorial Blockade and upcoming "Mass Mobilization to Stop the Drone Wars" at Creech air base in Indian Springs, Nevada.

Mary Anne Grady Flores, who was released from the DeWitt County jail on Monday [3/7/16], discusses the scope of Pres. Obama’s drone program, the impact on victims, and the attempt to silence witnesses to the drone assassinations internationally. She provides an update on the stay of her jail sentence for violating an unconstitutional Order of Protection and the appeals to the NY Court of Appeals that have been filed to challenge the legality of the Orders of Protection, supposedly to protect the air base commander from nonviolent protesters.

Beth Harris, Ithaca Jewish Voice for Peace, shares the ACLU's call to limit the next president's power to wage drone warfare and the importance of breaking the government’s silence about the selection of drone targets and accounting for the actual killings that have occurred due to this policy.

Harry Murray, who will be sentenced at 8pm, discusses the prohibition during his trial of disclosures to the court the impact of drone warfare on children. He concludes that quashing this evidence hampers democracy and governmental accountability. He addresses the need for civil disobedience to counter the human rights abuses inflicted by drone policy.